Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Robin Hood in Canada

Canadian Classics

Ted McCall was a writer notable for creating two early adventure comic strips that ran in Canadian newspapers. In 1933, he created Men of the Mounted, an RCMP strip illustrated by cartoonist Harry Hall. The strip ran in the Toronto Telegram and was eventually immortalized as a Big Little Book.

McCall's second creation was a comic strip version of Robin Hood, chiefly illustrated by Toronto Telegram staffer Charles Snelgrove. Essentially an also-ran in the Prince Valiant-style medieval serial sweeps, this strip had a fairly long life. McCall took the strip to comic book form in the 1940s, during the boom in Canadian comics publishing. Robin Hood and Company ran for 30-odd issues in various formats, from 1941-46.

The incredibly boring episode featured here was printed in the Niagara Falls Evening Review, December 21, 1937. (click on the strip to enlarge the image)